It is designed with an automated permission
process that makes case information available
only to specific individuals on each team.

It was quite a challenge to enable collaboration
and information sharing across the various parts
of the Ricoh enterprise in a strategic way, says
Ellis. To map out appropriate access pathways,
the development team considered: What does
each department need to see? Who should
have access? How do we maintain control?

The site is used not only to store information but
facilitates a proactive approach as well. It tracks
employment cases and claims in real time,
allowing Ricoh professionals to identify areas of
concern in human resources and employment
law and possible training opportunities.

Since the implementation of ouRSite, Ricoh hasreduced its active paper files by 90 percent, andreporting time by more than 60 percent. “Ourgoal was to enhance collaboration across thecompany,” says LaSalle. “We are quite proudof this tool, which enables us to work moreefficiently with outside counsel.”The legal departmentalso relies on Ricoh’sinternal website,RWorld, which runson the Jive Softwareplatform as a collabo-ration tool to improveefficiencies andempower its employees.The department’slanding page includescontract forms,non-compete informa-tion, FAQs, trainingmaterials and policies—a true knowledgerepository that can be updated instantlyand managed in real time. In 2016 alone, ifemployees had requested just two of the mostpopular forms through an email to the legaldepartment, there would have been more than athousand inquiries requiring a response.

The transactions team, which supports Ricoh’s
sales organization, has leveraged RWorld to
develop closer relationships with their internal
clients. “We wanted to work smarter and be
more timely. We went from a static site and
presence that required lead time, to a more
dynamic online presence that is responsive to
the issues our customers care about,” explains
Quinn Martin, vice president and assistant
general counsel. The team has developed a
series of Transactional Information and Pointers
(TIPs) publications that highlight important
legal issues in a way that is easily consumable
for employees, who have viewed the information more than 1,300 times. The department
also posts blogs on RWorld that offer guidance
and increase awareness on such hot topics as
privacy and ethics.

• Innovative approach to roll out a KM platform and blog toreduce queries to the legal team and educate the businessto enable them to self-service some types of legal adviceand information• Impressive results on hits to the KM sites and productivity gains